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How to Paint The Front of Your House a Different Color?

J.E. Myers

While some neighbors might disapprove, there are circumstances that might make it acceptable to paint the front of your house a different color from the other sides. Perhaps you want to paint your Victorian house in an authentic color scheme but don't want to have to paint all sides in such a time-consuming, strictly historical manner. Or you may want to paint your house in a color that might be very appropriate for the front because of a special landscape design, but it's not so good for the back. Like any house painting job, preparation and technique are keys to a satisfactory result.

You can paint the front of your house a different color.
  1. Prep the painting surface by scraping any loose paint from the siding. Use a steel wire paint-scraping brush with a scraper blade on the opposite end of the tool. Wear protective eye wear and a nose-and-mouth mask guard while scraping the old paint.

  2. Wash the front of the house with a power water sprayer. Let it dry completely.

  3. Prime the siding and trims with a good exterior primer product and a brush or spray applicator. Priming often can reduce the need to apply two or more coats of paint, particularly when painting light over dark colors. Priming also will help fill in any uneven surfaces produced by scraping and will make your paint job last longer. Let the primer dry.

  4. Paint the house in the major color first, working from the top of the house down to the ground level. Choose the major color with some thought about the other sides of the house, especially if the sides are some other color than white. If the other sides are a solid color, a white, off-white, or gray color might be best for the front. Let the paint dry over a 24-hour period.

  5. Take care of any trim work. Use a color that relates to the color of the sides and back of the house, if possible. For example, if the sides and back of the house are white, use white for the trim colors on the front of the house. Mask previously painted areas that you want to protect. Work from the top of the house down to the ground level.

  6. Paint other trim work around the other sides of the house using the new front trim color, if possible. This will help unify your paint scheme for the whole house, even though the front of the house is a different color from the other sides. Use good color judgment though. If the sides of your house are dark green, for example, and your new front trim is red (on a new white background perhaps), don't paint the trim on the sides or back of the house red -- the result of combining red and green is too much of a contrast.